OSJ Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 A happy 57th to Ian McDonald, someone I've enjoyed reading since 1988. Here's a link to his page at ISFDB, if you can't find something interesting by McDonald to check out, I would seriously check your pulse to make sure that you're still with us. For a varied and interesting output, he has to be at the top of the list. He's also at the top of the list of "authors that I mean to collect, but fail miserably at", the dude is just too damn prolific, I just now realized he's written half a dozen books that flew under my radar entirely... BTW: His "Best of" short story collection is a monster and should be on everyone's shelf, quite a bargain. Look for it on abebooks.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted November 28, 2017 Author Share Posted November 28, 2017 I may be the only one that cares, but forty years ago today we lost Frederick C. Davis, the author of The Mole Men Want Your Eyes, among many other pulp classics. He turned his hand to straight mystery fiction after WWII, but damn, during the heyday of the weird menace pulps, he could bring the sadism and mayhem like few others. A pity that I never got to meet him. Of course, y'all can get one of these from me easily enough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted December 4, 2017 Share Posted December 4, 2017 I was saddened to hear recently that artist, writer, and frequent contributor to Heavy Metal magazine, Alphonso Azpiri, passed away back in August. I had no idea he had died until one of my friends in London heard about an estate sale in a Spanish newspaper featuring some of his most famous work. Most readers of Heavy Metal will remember him as the creator of Lorna. If Paolo Serpieri passes away anytime soon, I may jump off of a bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 Just thought I'd mention that thirteen years ago today we lost the greatest humorist that SF or literature as a whole has ever seen. A guy like Robert Sheckley only comes around this way once. We weren't exactly close friends but something a bit more than nodding acquaintances, our mutual nicotine addiction assured that we would often find ourselves standing outside of a convention having a smoke. We had talked quite a bit about doing a retrospective of his complete works, (there is the Pulphouse set issued in 1991, but it's a piece of garbage as far as bookmaking goes the books are so tight that the text is lost in the gutters and you miss the last or first word on every page.) We will get around to publishing Sheckley at Centipede Press, I'm still thinking a one-volume retrospective of a quarter of a million words at $45 in the Masters of SF series and then do everything else as supplemental volumes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Long-time Judge Dredd artist and WWII Spitfire pilot(!) Ron Smith passed away today at 94. Probably my favorite Dredd penciller- his stuff was so dynamic, disturbing and hilarious that you never would've guessed he was already approaching the business end of his 50s when he first worked on the legendary lawman. RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted April 16, 2019 Share Posted April 16, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted April 16, 2019 Author Share Posted April 16, 2019 Naming a favorite book by Gene Wolfe would keep us here all day. My favorite Gene Wolfe memory is from a World Fantasy Con in Chicago (well, Schaumberg, actually, but the less said about that, the better...) Anyway, out of the clear blue sky I had been pointed out to Vince Harper of Shadowlands Press as someone who might be interested in editing a Clark Ashton Smith tribute anthology... Yeah, he had me at "Clark"... Now I don't know how he heard us on the other side of the dealers' room, with the buzz of a dozen different conversations, (I could barely hear Vince as he offered what was essentially a big bag of money for a dream project that I would have done for free,) when I heard this thunderous voice "Young man! You're not contemplating doing this anthology without me, are you?" I turned, only to find Gene pointing his cane at me. Wait, this was Gene Wolfe, one of the finest writers in the English-speaking world, a man that I would have cut off my hand in order to get a story from demanding to be included in an anthology that I was editing. Hell, he was one of five writers that I would pay anything to have in the book, Leiber was no longer with us, for some reason(s) Ellison and Shea were not available and I got a story from Brian J. McNaughton. and of course Gene Wolfe, who had a brilliant story to me within two weeks. Yeah, Gene Wolfe was thrilled to be in an anthology that I was editing... It just doesn't get much better than that... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted March 15, 2020 Author Share Posted March 15, 2020 Eighty-three years ago today H.P. Lovecraft took his racist ass to another plane of existence. One can only hope that in the pursuit of enlightenment that I believe we all experience, HPL is somewhere where he was able to observe his likeness removed from the World Fantasy Award due to his disgusting racist views, that he could see a black woman (who is ten times the writer he ever dreamed of being) win the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row, and finally see that the leading practitioner of "Lovecraftian fiction" (who sadly passed away a year ago on the 25th) was as gay as a spring frock. That ought to do it... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 (edited) http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/rip-robert-uncle-bob-martin-1948-2020/ This kinda sorta goes here. RIP EDIT: Nevermind -- he wrote the novelization of Brain Damage so he damn sure belongs here Edited July 31, 2020 by Curt McGirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 RIP Verner Venge age 79 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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